Media devices, such as a set top box, are configured to receive media content. The received media content may be presented on a media presentation device, such as a television, computer system, monitor, or the like. The media content, such as a television program, a broadcast sports event, a movie, or the like, is received in the form of a video stream and an associated audio stream. The video stream and the audio stream are temporally synchronized with each other. Once received and processed, the video stream is presented on a display and the audio stream is output from one or more speakers in a synchronized fashion. For example, an actor in a program or movie is viewable on the display. The actor's dialogue is heard by the viewer, where the dialogue is synchronized with the apparent speech movements of the actor.
However, the synchronization between the video stream and the audio stream may not be exact. In such situations, a viewer will perceive that the movement of the actor's lips when speaking does not exactly correspond to the dialogue that is being heard by the viewer. Other events in a movie may be associated with expected sounds. For example, an explosion scene from the video stream can be expected to have an attendant explosion sound in the audio stream. If the synchronization between the video stream and the audio stream is not exact, then the user will perceive the discrepancy between the presented image of the explosion and their hearing of the explosion sound, which will be heard at a time that does not correspond to the viewed image of the explosion.
Many different “lip-sync” or “lip-synchronism” systems have been developed to correct the lip-sync problem. However, such lip-sync correction systems and methods are based on the signal characteristics of the voice and audio streams, and/or are based on various clocking or timing signals associated with the video and audio streams.
Ultimately, the user of the media presentation system perceives the success, or failure, of such lip-sync correction systems and methods. If the lip-sync correction systems and methods fail to perform as intended, the user perceives the unsynchronized presentation of the video and audio streams. Such unsynchronized presentation of the video stream and the audio stream may be very distracting to the user.
Unfortunately, the user is not able to correct an apparent unsynchronized presentation of the video and audio streams. Accordingly, there is a need in the arts to permit the user to synchronize presentation of a presented video stream and a presented audio stream.